summon

summon · verb, noun¹

1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*monéyeti
2. Latin · derived fromsummonēre
3. Old French · derived fromsumundre
4. Anglo-Norman · derived fromsomoundre
5. English todaysummon

From Anglo-Norman somoundre, from Old French sumundre, from Latin summonēre, itself from sub + monēre, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *monéyeti, causative from *men- (“to think”). Compare typologically from the same PIE root mention, Russian помина́ть (pominátʹ), упомина́ть (upominátʹ) (developed less further, keeping strong relation with по́мнить (pómnitʹ)), also compare помина́й как зва́ли (pomináj kak zváli) (<+ звать (zvatʹ)).

summon · noun, verb²

1. English · derived fromsummons“notice summoning someone to appear in court”
2. Malay · borrowed fromsaman“fine, financial penalty”
3. English todaysummon

Borrowed from Malay saman (“fine, financial penalty”), which is itself borrowed from English summons (“notice summoning someone to appear in court”). This sense re-emerged in English as summon likely due to the erroneous belief that the original singular English word summons is plural. Doublet of summons and saman.

Words from the same roots